


When You See Them, Don't Balk

by silveradept



Category: Original Work
Genre: Do Not Annoy The Sports Gods, Gen, Reveal at the end, Trick-Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2019-10-16
Packaged: 2020-12-17 10:13:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21052691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveradept/pseuds/silveradept
Summary: We are the ones sent when oaths are broken, when too much is demanded. You know who we are, and now, you'll learn our name.





	When You See Them, Don't Balk

**Author's Note:**

  * For [theladyscribe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/theladyscribe/gifts).

There's always a story. It starts on the Little League grounds, little whispers and fragments said between fielders as they pass the time waiting for their turn to shine. Most of the time, it's harmless fun. Most players aren't going to go to The Show. Many of them admit this and have come to terms with it. They play the game because it's fun, because it's exercise, and because it's supposedly the national pass-time, despite the spirited debates of the last decades about whether the charm of a low-speed baseball game can compete with the uptempo sports with actual clocks.

The kids who go to Williamsport hear it a little louder than most. So do the college students who go to Omaha. Most of them dismiss it as something you haze the newbies with. They tell it like it's a snipe hunt, all "stand on the mound with an unpitched baseball at midnight and chant 'Marge Schott' three times and you'll have an unstoppable curve."

As if it were mere urban legend. Stand in a ballpark when the fans aren't there, and you can hear the whispers of games long past. Listen, really listen, to a sold-out stadium, and you'll hear prayers to every conceivable god, and it only gets stronger when it's the bottom of the ninth and the home team is one swing away from a comeback.

People don't believe in them because they're not consistent with their favors. And because they've never been offered those favors. 

"We can make you strong," the gods whisper. That might have been enough before, but the weight room, and, if needed, the juice can make someone strong. Crushing dingers is within anyone's grasp these days.

"We can make you famous," they whisper. "Your name will be known forever." They never say why, though. For every Cal Ripken Junior there's a Barry Bonds. A Tommy John for each Kirk Gibson. A Lou Gherig for each Ichiro.

For some, it's enough. But others, they don't want just the name. They want the career. They want it all, and they won't be satisfied until they get it. They want to be in the Hall. They think they've got it worked out. Iron-clad contracts, forged to give greatness now, thinking they can burn their candle at both ends and get out before the payment is due. 

They never think about us. They do not wait for the gods to appear and accept their blessings, but make demands of the gods to give them selfish things, and they believe they are safe from punishment for their impudence. They use pretty words and think their contracts protect them from us. We are gods ourselves, equally as much as the ones who visit when a player is on the cusp of their destiny, and we do not forget.

Sometimes we come as the stings of a thousand invisible insects, striking at their arms and taking away their throws and swings. Sometimes, we are the sound and the fury of a thousand small animals, biting at their legs and never leaving them a moment's peace. We are the Erinyes, punishing those who swear falsely, who insult us, whose greed is greater than their respect for the game. We drive them from our sport and leave our mark upon them forever, so that those who see understand and fear us all.

But mostly, people call us the yips.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] When You See Them Don't Balk](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26500345) by [ofjustimagine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ofjustimagine/pseuds/ofjustimagine)


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